Stealing from Supervillains
by quicksilversquared
Summary: In a timeline where Hawkmoth didn't lose the Miracle Box, Marinette has to get the Miraculous back some other way. Her first target is Chloe, Hawkmoth's one known ally, and failure is not an option. When Hawkmoth brings the Miracle Box along with him- well, Marinette is determined to get all of the Miraculous back, even if she needs to burn down the entire hotel to do it.
1. Chapter 1

_a/n: This is the companion story to Luka and the Jewelry Heist, as told from Marinette's POV! As this story is a "what-if" AU of the S3 finale, it will probably make more sense if you read that story first because it explains the set-up a bit more (and also features Luka panicking over Marinette's over-competence and crazy planning)._

* * *

As Chloe paced in front of her window, Marinette shifted from foot to foot in her crouch, trying not to make any noise.

The advantage of being able to do stakeouts while transformed was that her leg muscles_ didn't _cramp up. Without her Ladybug transformation, Marinette had no such advantage, and she just had to hope that her legs wouldn't get too stiff for her to be able to pull off her plan successfully once Hawkmoth finally arrived.

If she had thought to get one more kwami from her now-limited collection to help play lookout, then Marinette would have transformed for sure before Chloe returned to the room and just pulled on her biking outfit on top of her superhero suit so that Luka wouldn't see _Ladybug_ instead of _Marinette_ on the camera stream. But she hadn't thought of it, and now Marinette just had to do her best to _not_ let her legs seize up.

Hopefully Hawkmoth would arrive soon. She just wanted to get _started_, darn it.

Marinette glanced at her phone again, making sure that Luka hadn't sent anything else. He was her long-distance lookout, letting her know well in advance if anyone came up, and Tikki was her shorter-distance lookout, making sure that no one could sneak up behind her if they somehow got past Luka, or if someone in the room was going somewhere that Marinette hadn't expected. He seemed less than convinced about the whole plan to steal the Bee from Chloe, but at least he was being a pretty good sport about it.

And then Hawkmoth arrived, with Mayura at his side.

Marinette watched the feed on her phone, taking note of where the supervillains and Chloe were standing. They were actually in pretty perfect position, right where she had expected they would go, and Marinette grinned. _So far, so good_.

And then Hawkmoth pulled out the Miracle Box.

Marinette gaped, only just resisting the urge to pop up over the couch and make sure that her camera wasn't just malfunctioning and making her see things. She knew that Hawkmoth _had_ the box, of course, but why had he brought it along?

As soon as she thought it, the answer was obvious: Hawkmoth was going to visit Lila after this, and he wanted to give her a Miraculous- or, if she was interpreting his wording correctly, _more_ than one Miraculous, because she was more trustworthy than Chloe and a more valuable ally.

That would be a disaster. Lila was _quite_ bad enough without any magic powers on her side. If she had a Miraculous- if she could do damage that _wouldn't_ necessarily be fixed by Miraculous Cure, if she had _multiple_ Miraculous that she could switch between- _that_ would be terrible. She would manipulate and twist and threaten her way into doing whatever she wanted, and it would be _really_ hard to stop her.

So obviously, the solution would be to try to get the Miraculous box, too.

Marinette's brain raced as she tried to come up with a plan, all while listening for the perfect opening to steal the Bee. It would be hard, if not impossible, to pull a double theft like that off without prior preparation- but she could probably say that about a lot of stuff that she did as Ladybug, too. There was a way, she just had to find it.

She wished that she had backup in the room, a second person who she could work in tandem with. The lighter-hairspray-firework pellets explosion setup that she had readied earlier would provide a second distraction, one that she had initially planned on using to try to go for the Peacock Miraculous- after all, if she could figure out Mayura's identity, Hawkmoth's surely wouldn't be far behind- but it wouldn't be enough of a distraction for her to manage both Peacock _and _Box. Marinette wished that she had the Mouse, maybe- while her copies shrunk, splitting into two individuals instead of a whole slew wouldn't make her _that_ much smaller, but even that could put her at a disadvantage in a fight- or had brought Chat Noir, or-

It hit her like a train. The Rabbit Miraculous! It was another Miraculous that would let her tag-team with herself, but this time she could stay at full size. It would be smarter for her present self to go for the Box, probably, and- oh, she needed to get the Bee _now_.

With one quick move, Marinette snagged the extra remote that she had stolen from Chloe and clicked the TV on. The volume was way up, just like she had set it earlier, and it made both supervillains and Chloe jump and turn towards it, their backs fully towards her. In a second, Marinette vaulted over the couch, swapped out the Bee Miraculous for a fake, winked at Pollen- who thankfully got the message and stayed floating next to Chloe, acting as though nothing had changed- and then rolled back over the couch and into her hiding spot, the faint _thud_ of her feet hitting the floor easily masked by Chloe's furious shrieking at Hawkmoth.

Marinette smirked. She had _known_ that it was a good idea to have Tikki mess with the TV over the past week. Sure, part of it had been because she _knew_ that Chloe was getting away with collaborating with a supervillain and getting a bit of revenge, no matter how petty, was incredibly satisfying, but the possibility of using the TV as a distraction had been with her ever since Tikki found an entry in Chloe's diary detailing how Hawkmoth had _finally_ decided to get his act together and give Chloe the Bee permanently.

And it had worked _splendidly._

Back in hiding, Marinette went straight back to her brainstorming. Her Present-self would get the Box- that was most critical, after all, because Hawkmoth could _not_ have those powers at his disposal- and then her Future-self would go for Mayura, providing an additional distraction. If all went to plan, Hawkmoth would be left on his own with no superpowered allies by his side and with his identity in jeopardy by the end of the evening.

She just had to believe that it would work.

* * *

Her next opening came quickly.

Hawkmoth was making signs that he was thinking about heading out soon and she could _not_ let him get close to the window or pick up the Miracle Box, or Marinette would be out of luck. So while Hawkmoth and Chloe were talking- and their voices had raised a bit, clearly even though they were allies there was some animosity there- Marinette quickly pressed _send _on the text message that she had prepared, shook her can of hairspray (_also_ filched from Chloe), pulled her lighter out of her tool belt (one with a _long_ neck, for safety reasons), and sent a roaring plume of fire straight into one of the couches that she had seeded with the contents of several fireworks earlier.

The room lit up.

"Pollen, _transform me!_" Marinette hissed, feeling the transformation flash over her as she kept spraying fire. Two more couches caught on fire, and she could hear Hawkmoth screaming for Chloe to transform. Bumblebee dashed past as Chloe tried and failed to transform, her own screams turning from terror into anger as she realized that she had a fake Miraculous.

On Hawkmoth's other side, a shadowy figure attacked Mayura. Bumblebee glanced over long enough to catch the flash of a transformation coming undone and Hawkmoth's attention going to Mayura. With her opening well secured, Bumblebee snatched up the Miracle Box, vaulted over a still-flaming couch- thank _goodness_ for the protective powers of the suit- and blasted straight through Chloe's windows to escape outside, immediately vaulting over the edge of the balcony and catching the rails so that she could hang there, not immediately visible to anyone coming out on the balcony but high enough that she would be able to see them.

Her future self was probably fine, but she just wanted to be sure.

"Ah, crap, the camera," Bumblebee muttered, frowning as Hawkmoth burst through the glass as well, carrying- well, what _looked_ like an akumatized Mayura. How had he akumatized her so quickly? Had he brought butterflies along with him or something? She ducked down further, but Hawkmoth was clearly booking it, only sparing a quick glance around as he fled. Then she perked up. "Maybe my future self got it before it burned?"

There was a _buzz_ from her trompo, and Bumblebee pulled herself back up onto the balcony, then jumped onto the clearly hastily abandoned upper deck. There was a message on her trompo from _Bumblebun, _which presumably was her future self.

_Out of room. Got Peacock and camera. Hide Box in planters- I'll be up in a minute._

"All right," Bumblebee muttered, casting one more glance around before hiding herself among the planters and pulling out the Rabbit's watch. "Into the fire, one more time. Fluff, let's go!"

* * *

Bumblebun landed on Chloe's balcony as the first plume of fire lit up the inside of Chloe's room, slipping inside as everyone turned towards the flaming couch automatically. The flash of dozens of firework pellets lighting up as they were ignited by the hairspray flamethrower covered her past self's transformation- as she had planned- and the supervillains were all thoroughly distracted, squinting against the too-bright lights.

But Bumblebun had her target, and she wasn't about to get distracted. Moving fast, she vaulted over an end table that was in the way and pounced on Mayura, jumping up onto her back and freezing her with a well-placed Sting. After that, it was child's play to reach over the frozen Mayura's shoulder for the Miraculous, even with Hawkmoth rushing towards her. He was already pulling his sword free from his cane, oblivious to Bumblebee rushing behind him and grabbing up the Miracle Box.

The Peacock pin came free in a flash, and then Bumblebun was kicking away from Mayura, shoving the stiff-as-a-board supervillain towards her hidden camera and giving herself some distance from Hawkmoth as well. This time around, from this angle, she could see Hawkmoth pulling a boxed akuma out of his pocket- apparently he had come with a backup plan in place, maybe he wasn't a _complete_ idiot- and slamming it into the former Mayura's jacket the second that it got revealed. Purple bubbled around her, and Bumblebun took the chance to make a break for it, snatching up her camera as she dashed for the door.

She hadn't been able to see who Mayura had been between the detransformation and the akumatization, but with any luck it had been caught on tape.

Fire alarms were blaring in the hallway, but Bumblebun ignored them. With a quick glance behind her to make sure that she wasn't being followed, she tore into the stairwell and dashed upstairs, sending Bumblebee a quick text as she did. Just as she reached the top, she could see the flash as Bumblebee became Bumblebun, and then jumped into the past. Seconds later, she rounded the corner, picking up the Miracle Box from where she had just hidden it.

"Mission complete," Bumblebun said contentedly, releasing Fluff and Pollen. Marinette grinned at them before they retreated to their Miraculous, and then tucked both back into the box. She took a moment to breathe- the past who-knew-how-many minutes had been absolutely _insane_\- and ignore the sounds of Chloe's furious screaming from her balcony below.

Well, _someone_ was clearly fine. Scared (and with good reason, admittedly), but fine.

"Oh, look at the Peacock!" Tikki exclaimed, and Marinette glanced down. "It's fixed!"

"How can you tell?" Marinette asked, but the answer was obvious even as soon as she said it. "Oh, wait. You figured out that it was broken before because of the energy being off, so now it's _not_ off?"

Tikki wriggled. "Exactly! _And_ it means that it's a _really_ good thing that you got it now," she added, suddenly serious. "Because it had limitations on it before from being broken. Now, I bet we would be seeing sentimonsters _every_ fight, and strong ones, too."

"_Ugh_." Marinette considered the Peacock, now more glad than ever that she had grabbed it. The thought of having to face both an akuma and a sentimonster- _especially_ if they were working together, or two parts of a whole- on a regular basis? That was _not_ appealing. She and Chat Noir would have been _super_ overwhelmed.

But now? Now they were in a _much_ better spot, with Hawkmoth left without teammates and all of the other Miraculous back on their side. It would be a bit hard to explain their sudden return to Chat Noir- Marinette didn't want to run the risk of him somehow hearing about _her_ being involved, only for Ladybug to claim credit- but she could think about that later.

After another moment to catch her breath, Marinette picked herself back up, gathering up all of her things to leave. After a moment of deliberation- it _was_ possible that Hawkmoth and akuma-Mayura might circle back around to try to get the Box back- she pulled out the Horse and Voyaged into the alleyway where she had stashed a change of clothes, completely changing her look up again just for good measure. She took a moment to make sure that the Miracle Box was safely stashed in her bag before setting out looking for Luka, weaving through the crowds on the sidewalks.

Hopefully he wouldn't be _too_ annoyed with her for not warning him about the whole fire thing. He had just seemed so reluctant about the whole thing that she hadn't wanted to mention the bit about the arson ahead of time, in case he _really_ thought that she was losing it.

It was arson for a good cause, that was how Marinette was justifying it. She had the entire box of Miraculous back now, plus Mayura's Miraculous _and_ proof that Chloe had been working with Hawkmoth.

With Tikki's help, it wasn't hard to find Luka, who had joined up with Adrien and Kagami- and why were _they_ in the area? That was such a strange coincidence-

-except Adrien had apparently been coming to do the exact same thing that she had with the Bee, and what were the chances of _that?_ They were on the same wavelength, it seemed, which-

She wasn't going to overthink it. Overthinking could lead to her thinking about how well she and Adrien would work together, both as a team and as a couple, but that wasn't fair to him or Kagami, _or_ to Luka. It was cool that she had a friend who thought in the same way that she, a superhero, did, and it was definitely confirmation that Adrien had some serious superhero potential. Maybe the Snake hadn't been a perfect fit for him, but maybe they could try a different Miraculous later.

_Later_, of course, would presumably be soon. After all, she very possibly had a clue to Hawkmoth's identity on her camera and it would be better to go after Hawkmoth sooner rather than later if possible, while he was still reeling from the attack.

Before she could think about that _too_ much, though, Kagami's driver arrived and she had to leave. Luka left with her, taking her up on her offer of a ride. Marinette had shuffled her feet on the sidewalk as they stepped towards the car, sure that Adrien was about to leave, too, and then she would have to walk home alone- or, more likely, use Voyage to skip the walk and make it shorter and _safer_\- but instead, he stayed.

"I'm really curious about who Hawkmoth is," he told Luka and Kagami, stepping back to stand at Marinette's side. "And I want to make sure that Marinette gets home safely, too. Thanks for coming along and helping out."

"Let me know what you find out, will you?" Kagami requested as she grasped the handle on her car door, tugging it open. "I'd come as well, but my mom will expect me home and I have very little desire to see what crazy, death-defying stunts Marinette pulled to get all of those Miraculous."

Luka just nodded, looking far more exhausted than Marinette could remember him ever looking. That was strange- had he _really_ been that stressed out by the whole experience? She had thought that he had been kidding about the stress. After all, Luka had been a superhero before just fine, a little bit of lookout duty shouldn't have been _worse._

"I think you broke Luka," Adrien commented with a small laugh as the car pulled away. They watched it go, and then he offered her his arm. "Shall we?"

"Is your father going to be expecting you?" Marinette asked, though she took his arm anyway and they started off. She kept one hand on her bag protectively and kept a sharp eye out for any lingering supervillains. "If you're going to get in trouble..."

Adrien shook his head. "I'm not expected home for a while. I told the Gorilla that I was going to be with Kagami and her driver, so he's off tonight. Otherwise, yeah, if I told him that we were going to the Grand Paris, he would already be here."

"Oh, right, because the fire would be considered pretty weird and dangerous, right?" Marinette glanced back at the Grand Paris. Now that the fireworks were burned out- and was she _ever_ glad that she had picked those up as Ladybug, because then nothing could be traced back to her civilian self- there wasn't as much fuel in the room. What had been a blazing, white-hot fire had died down to barely a glow now, and no doubt there were firefighters all over inside of the hotel. "Are you sure your father won't call the Gorilla back?"

"He doesn't know that we were going to the hotel. I just told Nathalie that Kagami and I were going out to dinner." Adrien grimaced. "And then...didn't eat. I was _planning_ on it, because from what I heard Chloe was going to be getting the Miraculous after dinner, but Kagami insisted that she would be too nervous about things going wrong to eat."

"We'll grab something to eat while we watch the footage I got," Marinette told Adrien. She was sure that her parents would have plenty of the food in the fridge that they could grab. "If that's okay with you, of course."

"Of course it is! I love your parents' cooking." Adrien grinned over at her, tugging her to a stop at a stoplight that she was about to walk straight through. "Although I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy it as much as usual. I'm too excited about potentially finding out about Hawkmoth. He's been attacking the city for so long- to potentially find out who he is _tonight_-"

"Wait, you're figuring out Hawkmoth tonight? What are you two up to?"

Marinette startled, and Adrien's arm tightened around hers as they both spun in surprise to face the voice. Behind them was Alix, looking simultaneously confused and _incredibly_ intrigued.

Adrien recovered faster, flashing a bright smile at Alix. "Alix! I wasn't expecting to see you tonight- how are you doing?"

Alix narrowed her eyes, wagging a finger at him. "Don't think that I don't know _exactly_ what you're trying to do, buddy-boy. Trying to distract me won't work. But if you _must_ know, I saw you and Marinette over here and came to say hi- though do you want to explain to me why you _look_ like you've been on a date, but _smell_-" she sniffed, wrinkling her nose. "Like smoke and gunpowder? _And_ when there's just been a _really_ strange fire at the Grand Paris?"

"Okay, _shush_," Marinette hissed, glancing around and trying to resist the urge to sniff herself. She hadn't thought that the smoke smell was _that_ strong, considering that she had transformed pretty much right away, but maybe whatever smell got on her superhero suit (suits?) transferred over to her regular clothes. Her mind raced, trying to figure out if there were any ways to get out of this, but she wasn't coming up with anything and Marinette abandoned that plan at once.

Alix was going to be Ladybug and Chat Noir's permanent teammate in the future, after all. Why _should_ she try to keep any information about Hawkmoth from her? She could come in handy for the final battle.

"Not here," Marinette continued, snagging Alix's arm and tugging her along as Adrien started across the street. "We'll talk at my house- uh, you didn't have anywhere to be, right? It'll be okay for us to steal you away for a bit?"

Alix grinned, waving her phone. "Dad's away for the weekend, so it's Jalil in charge. I don't doubt that he would appreciate you stealing me away for a bit so that he can play with his conspiracy theories in peace for a bit longer."

Marinette snorted. Ah, Jalil and his conspiracies. "What's he got going now? Still on the Egyptian pyramids?"

"Oh _god_. No, the pyramids are yesterday's news- lemme tell you about his new level of crazy..."

* * *

It didn't take long to get back to Marinette's house, pausing in the kitchen to snag a snack for all three of them before parking themselves at Marinette's desk, waiting anxiously for the video to transfer from the borrowed camera (partially melted in one spot from the fire, but otherwise fine) to Marinette's computer. While Adrien and Alix settled in, Marinette pulled the Miracle Box out of her bag and slipped the extra Miraculous that she had had from before- the Turtle and the Dragon- back into the box where they were meant to be, adding the Bee and Peacock last.

Outside, another fire truck raced past, followed by a police car, and Marinette frowned. Surely there were _already_ enough emergency vehicles at the Grand Paris. Maybe the fire had been explosive, but it had died back fast after the gunpowder all burned off and the sprinkler system finally kicked in.

Maybe the mayor was just making a big fuss and the fire department had decided that going along with it would be easier than arguing.

"All ready!" Adrien announced, grinning with excitement as Marinette returned, setting the Miracle Box down under the desk. She was going to have to find a better hiding spot for that eventually, but this would work for now. "Marinette, there's over an hour of footage- how far from the end is the important bit?"

"Uh, not very long? I turned it off once I was well clear of Hawkmoth." Marinette watched as Adrien clicked forward in the video, scanning past flashes of Marinette getting things set up and Chloe pacing. He paused when they saw Hawkmoth enter, and Marinette shook her head. "It's past that."

"Can we watch this bit anyway?" Alix asked eagerly. There was a sly little grin on her face. "I wanna see Chloe dealing with Hawkmoth. Or Hawkmoth dealing with Chloe, we all know that it could very well be that way around."

Adrien laughed, turning the volume up a bit and hitting _Play_. "I'm honestly curious, too. And I want to see how Marinette managed to steal all of those Miraculous and get away with it. That's absolutely _insane_."

"_Hell_ yeah."

Marinette turned pink, but was happy to have a bit of break to sit back and eat as Hawkmoth lectured Chloe. Adrien and Alix cheered in unison as the Marinette onscreen vaulted over the couch, stealing Chloe's Miraculous and vanishing again without being noticed.

"That was _smooth_," Alix said appreciatively. "Man, how is it that you trip over your own feet when walking to class, but you can pull something like _that_ off?"

"Focus?" Marinette suggested weakly. "I mean, if I'm not watching where I'm going, it's easier to trip."

"And- hold on, pause, did Hawkbutt say that there was someone else that they were going to visit?" Alix demanded, slapping the _Pause_ button again. "How the hell is this dude finding _more_ people willing to work with him? It's absolutely insane!"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a glance and, without a word, Marinette knew that they were on the same page again. "Lila."

"She's not even subtle about it," Adrien agreed, frowning. "I mean, I bet we won't get any evidence to connect her now, but she's certainly taken the akuma's side enough even without getting controlled by any powers."

Alix looked shocked. "What do you mean, Lila? I thought that she was Ladybug's best friend? And she was the one who got Ladybug connected with all of those embassy people, to arrange that agreement that said that if anyone connected with an embassy in any way was found to be working with Hawkmoth, their immunity would automatically be waived."

Neither of them could hold in their snort at that. When Alix only looked more confused, Adrien hurried to explain.

"Those were both lies," he told Alix. "Just like every other story she's told. I mean, I guess it's more just a hunch than anything else for that second bit, but for the friends thing- Ladybug called her out when I was nearby, and I think Lila swore vengeance then instead of, y'know, admitting that she was actually in the wrong."

"And then I've definitely seen her getting in the superheroes' way during fights," Marinette added. Lila had _definitely_ grabbed onto that claim both because of the embassy connection, and because if she claimed credit for both idea and legwork, people wouldn't suspect her at all. "On purpose to mess them up, not just like what Chloe used to do because she's not at all self-aware. And Lila's gotten akumatized a few times when she literally wasn't upset at all."

Alix frowned more, then slouched. "Okay, that makes more sense than I want to admit, honestly. The name-dropping has been getting a little bit old. And _way_ too convenient. And the whole thing where you got expelled, Marinette- _that_ was weird."

"It was revenge for calling out all of her lies," Marinette told Alix. She nodded towards the computer screen, trying not to smile _too_ much at Alix's '_oh, that is **so** not cool_.'. "But maybe we can discuss that later, and focus on the whole Hawkmoth thing now?"

Alix nodded, and Adrien started up the video again. It wasn't long before the first plume of fire shot into frame, and then everything lit up at once.

"You said that that's from fireworks, right?" Adrien asked, pausing the video again. Quite a lot of stuff on the screen was on fire. "That's why everything caught so quickly?"

"Yeah. Three fireworks, taken apart and shoved in the couches." It had probably been overkill, but she had _wanted_ panic to reign supreme. "Smallish ones, because that was what I could get, but they pack a fair bit of power."

"Shoved- hang on, explain that bit," Alix demanded, leaning closer to the screen in an apparent attempt to see what was going on. "_How?_"

"I used a seam ripper and made slits in the back of the couches to tuck the star balls in," Marinette explained, grinning. She ran a finger along the back of one of the barely-visible couches onscreen, demonstrating. "Those are the colorful ones, the ones that make the light we actually see in fireworks- or at least that's what Google told me. And then the gunpowder- it's pressed into what look like large rice grains. I could force those through the fabric." Tikki had helped quite a bit with that, which was great because otherwise Marinette wouldn't have been able to get the couches _nearly _as studded with explosives as she had. "And then some got stuck between cushions, too, because that was faster."

Alix was gaping at her. "How did- okay, I knew that sometimes you have a habit of stealing phones, but this is _crazy_ more complicated than that. Like, you had to do a _lot _of preparation to be able to pull that off."

"_Anyway_, continuing," Marinette said loudly before Adrien could question the phone thing. "I brought along a lighter and snagged a can of hairspray from Chloe's bathroom to make a flamethrower to set everything off."

"Aha. _Classic_."

With the video restarted, all three of them were plastered to the screen again, watching as everything caught fire. There was a blur of movement from Bumblebee in the background, but Bumblebun was more front and center, dashing in from the opposite direction to Sting Mayura and snatch the Peacock.

"Slow it down, slow it down," Alix demanded, knocking Adrien's hand aside to claim the mouse for her own and rewinding several seconds back before slapping the slow-motion button several times, slowing the video to a crawl. She narrowed her eyes at the hybrid Bee-Rabbit wielder onscreen, then shot a look at Marinette. "You used the Rabbit to go back in time and tag-team with yourself, didn't you?"

Marinette hid her smile. Of _course_ she should have expected that Alix would catch that. She was one of the few people in Paris who had seen the Rabbit get used firsthand, after all. "I did, yeah- oh, look, Mayura is detransforming!"

Slowed down as much as it was, the jerkiness of Mayura's detransformation was obvious. It was as though the kwami was trying to hold on, even though Mayura _definitely_ didn't deserve the protection. Still, bit by bit, her transformation came undone-

"_Nathalie!"_ Adrien gasped, recognizing the figure first, even through the smoke and flame. Bumblebun's parting kick had done its job and sent her toppling towards the camera. "Oh god- oh _no_. The only person she would _ever_ help out is my father. And I know Ladybug suspected him before, but- he must have akumatized himself, that's the only way- oh _god_."

Marinette worried her lip as she exchanged a look with Alix and wrapped her arms around Adrien, comforting him in the only way she could. The jovial mood of only a few minute prior had completely evaporated in a second, and now everything was tense.

The goal of the evening, of course, had been to find out who Hawkmoth was, and maybe even call up Chat Noir and ambush their enemy before he had time to reset and recover. That was made harder by her friends tagging along, but- well, it was fun like this, and maybe she could use them as extra teammates to help. And now...

Adrien was reeling from the discovery, and needed his friends. Marinette wasn't going to leave him now.

"And he's sent akumas after himself- and after _me!_" Adrien's hand slammed down on the table, making both Alix and Marinette startle. "I nearly died _several_ times in targeted attacks, and he always acted so concerned afterwards- but it was all his fault to start! And, and-" Adrien stopped himself mid-sentence, and his expression hardened. "He has to go down. I mean, I _know_ why he's doing this- because of Mom- but that doesn't make it _right_, and if it weren't for Ladybug's cure, so many other people would have died!"

Marinette nodded, remembering all of the _insanely_ destructive akumas there had been. Buildings had been collapsed, the entire city had flooded, weather extremes had given the city whiplash, akumas had caused car accidents...

It wasn't good. While a lot of people didn't talk about it, Marinette knew that more than a few people in Paris had nightmares about dying- because they _had_ died before.

And that was _terrifying._

Adrien's shoulders straightened, stiffening in determination, and his eyes flashed to Marinette, steely and resolute. "It has to end. _Tonight_."

* * *

_a/n: Next chapter (because it got a bit long for a one-shot, lol)- a final battle and the Agreste mansion takes some damage, whoops :D_

_As always, comments make my day! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_a/n: Sorry for the delay! Life decided to kick my butt with car problems followed by a health scare (followed by being dragged out to help my mom with Christmas shopping, plus trying to actually make gifts in a shorter-than-expected time frame). (1/10 do not recommend doing any of that stuff. Particularly the health scare.)_

* * *

It didn't take long for them to figure out what they were going to do.

All three of them would grab a Miraculous to use- Alix gravitated straight for the Rabbit, of course, Marinette stuck with the Bee and its yo-yo-like trompo, and after a bit of deliberation (and some apparent surprise that it was even in the Box, which...uh, Marinette wasn't going to look at that _too_ closely at the moment), Adrien went for the Dragon because of its sword and his experience with fencing.

"Can I quick use the bathroom before we go?" Alix asked, raising her hand. "Since we're just going to use the Rabbit to go back in time and get set up in Mr. Agreste's office before he gets back anyway?"

"Go ahead," Marinette assured her. It wouldn't be a bad idea for her to do the same, actually, but mostly so that she could have a moment to talk to Tikki. It wasn't ideal that she was going to be going into the final battle with an unfamiliar Miraculous but, to be fair, if something went sideways she _could_ always just add on her Ladybug transformation on top of the Bee. That would mean that her friends would know her identity, but, well.

She was the Guardian now, no one was going to be taking her Miraculous away. Besides, Hawkmoth's defeat was more important.

"Fantastic!" Flashing Marinette a grin, Alix darted out of the room, heading downstairs. Fluff floated eagerly after her, clearly excited to get to explore a bit.

A minute passed, and Marinette was starting to get jittery. She didn't like just sitting around and waiting and not getting _something_ prepared. After a second, though, a light bulb went off in her head and Marinette stood up. "I'm going to go get some snacks for the kwamis. Alix is going to have to recharge Fluff after we jump back, and if anything drags on longer than we planned..."

"I'll come with!" Adrien volunteered, following Marinette towards her door. "It'll give me something to do, at any rate, beside just wondering what- what's going to happen to me once Father and Nathalie are in jail. Like, I have my aunt and cousin as family, of course, but they don't exactly live nearby and I don't know how much I would want to stay with them."

"We have a guest room," Marinette told Adrien as she pulled open the fridge. She knew that Fluff liked carrots and Pollen was a fan of honey in particular but anything sweet was good, and- well, the kwamis might _prefer _certain foods but they could eat anything, and so Marinette just had to get stuff that was easy enough to bring along. Outside, another fire truck zipped past. "And I _know_ my parents would be willing to have you, too. They like you a lot."

A smile finally reappeared on Adrien's face. "I like them, too. I'd like that."

"All right, I'm back!" Alix announced, bounding back into the room. "Let's go kick some Hawkbutt-"

"You're doing _what_ now?"

All three teens froze as Mrs. Cheng's voice rang through the room, and then Alix whipped around, wide eyes giving away the fact that she apparently hadn't noticed Marinette's mom following her back to the living room. Pollen and Longg vanished behind Adrien and Marinette, and Fluff followed suit a little too late. Mrs. Cheng's eyes followed the white blur, and then narrowed. "What was _that?_ And why am I smelling smoke? And- oh _good_, Adrien, you're all right, thank _goodness_."

Marinette and Adrien exchanged a look, and Marinette could feel her heart racing. Her mom wouldn't want them going after Hawkmoth and would call it too dangerous- which, okay, maybe it was a bit dangerous, but they _could_ do it just fine- but they couldn't _not_ go, now that they knew. It would be _more_ dangerous for Adrien to have to go back to his father's house when he had the information that he did. If he got upset by the betrayal again and his father decided to akumatize him...

That would be _super_ dangerous. If Hawkmoth could get any information from an akumatized Adrien, Marinette and her parents- _and_ the Miracle Box- would be at risk.

No, they couldn't do that. Surely, if they told her parents- and there was going to be no lying to get out of this one, her mom was definitely on their tracks- they could understand that, and let the three of them go.

Maybe. Possibly. And that comment about Adrien being all right- well, maybe that meant that they had been allowed and their attack was attracting a bit of attention. There was no other reason why her mom would say that, right?

"We found out that my father is Hawkmoth," Adrien blurted, apparently having come to a similar conclusion. "And we, uh, were going to go confront him."

"With superpowers!" Alix added quickly, pulling Fluff out. "Not, like, as regular people, that would be crazy. And we're going back in time to ambush him before he expects it, and- oh, Marinette already took Mayura down, so it would be three against one. In theory. Unless she's stayed an akuma and somehow un-froze."

Mrs. Cheng had gone pale, managing to make it over to the kitchen table before sinking into a chair. "Your father- _Hawkmoth_\- Marinette did _what?_"

Alix cringed and mouthed _'sorry'_ at Marinette.

"Did I hear something about Marinette taking Mayura down?" Mr. Dupain cut in eagerly, appearing around the doorframe, and Marinette narrowly restrained herself from facepalming. Of _course_ her dad would be super-excited about that. "Or did my ears deceive me?"

"And Mr. Agreste is Hawkmoth," Mrs. Cheng said weakly. "And these three want to go attack him."

"Well, they have the Peacock now, don't they?" Mr. Dupain asked, ignoring the look that his wife shot him. "So they have a Miraculous to use-"

A small smile slid onto Adrien's face. "Marinette stole the Bee from Chloe and an entire box of other Miraculous from Hawkmoth, too, so we have a bunch of Miraculous to choose from."

Her parents' gazes immediately shot to Marinette, a combination of horror and glee. Mr. Dupain reacted first.

"Can I come along, too?"

"_Tom!"_

"Darling, think about it!" Mr. Dupain implored. "If there's more of us, then there's a better chance that we can overpower Hawkmoth safely. And if he's without his backup, then the chances of us succeeding..." He paused, then continued. "And think of how much safer Adrien and Paris will be without Hawkmoth out and about."

Mrs. Cheng wavered. "But Tom, they're _kids_."

"And you've commented before on how young Ladybug and Chat Noir look," Mr. Dupain reminded her. Mrs. Cheng finally sighed.

"Okay. I'll permit it _if_ we can use a Miraculous as well."

"Marinette, your parents are _so_ cool," Alix said, a wide grin spreading across her face. "C'mon, we can explain the Miraculous we have to you and you can decide what powers you want to have. We could _definitely_ use someone on defense." She paused. "And, uh, is it just me, or am I hearing a _lot_ of sirens nearby?"

* * *

It didn't take long for them to get Marinette's parents set up with Miraculous. Her dad went for the Turtle- "A shield is always a good thing!"- and her mom for the Snake, _just in case_.

"Having a redo button puts my mind at ease," she told them as they gathered in the middle of Marinette's room, all transformed and ready. Bunnyx was double-checking times so they would arrive while Mr. Agreste and Nathalie were out. "I won't be trigger-happy Marinette, I _promise_, but if I see _any_ blood..."

Bumblebee nodded. That made her more relaxed, too, since so much of her team was made up of rookies.

With one last check to make sure that everyone knew what their powers were, Bunnyx whisked them into the past. As quietly as possible (and with a little bit of a struggle to get the transformed Mr. Dupain and his shield through Marinette's skylight), they took off through the sky, heading over to the Agreste mansion. They landed on the roof, glancing around for a way in. Mushu spotted an opening first.

"There's a hole in the roof," Mushu announced, waving them over. He peered inside before dropping in. His voice echoed up from inside. "And it's full of butterflies, and-" His voice turned disgusted. "Oh, of _course_ he has spooky mood lighting. Of _course_ he does."

Bunnyx snorted. "Adrien, couldn't you have looked inside _before_ jumping in? Just because Cobra has resets doesn't mean that you can stop thinking before you leap."

"I told you, it's _Mushu!_"

"And I already told you, you have to think up a name that _isn't_ just a rip-off from a Disney film or I'm just going to call you by your normal name!"

"Kids, let's _please_ just get in before someone spots us," Cobra said with a sigh. Bunnyx sighed back as she hopped down into the lair.

"Okay, wanting to be inspired by famous dragons I get! But why go for _Mushu_ when you have Smaug as a possibility?"

"The color scheme doesn't work!"

"Oh my _god_, you're such a dweeb. Bumblebee, tell Adrien he's being a dweeb."

Bumblebee couldn't hide her giggle. "I think it's cute- I mean! The name, and the connection, and, uh, the costume is also nice but- _um_." She cut herself off before she could start flailing _too_ much. They needed to focus. She might not have her spots right now, but she _needed_ to be in superhero mode. She took a deep breath, then continued. "Okay, so when Hawkmoth returns, he'll be coming in from that window, presumably. He'll have Nathalie- and she's been akumatized, but if he comes back fast enough then in _theory_ Sting won't have worn off yet on her, so she'll be more of a hindrance than a help."

"Right," Mushu said right away. "And he'll probably drop in like-" He hopped up on the wall, demonstrating. "So if we stand by the wall here, then Hawkmoth won't be able to see us and he won't have _any_ heads-up about our ambush."

"I feel like I should be concerned about how prepared you two are for this," Cobra said with a sigh, but followed Mushu's instruction. "Just was _are_ they teaching you kids in school these days?"

Bunnyx grinned, even as she found a corner to hide in. "Battle strategy is all the rage in Paris classrooms right now, don'cha know?"

They fell into silence, all waiting anxiously for Hawkmoth's return. Bumblebee flipped open her top, pulling up a live news feed. There would no doubt be a _little_ delay between when the fire started and the news broke out, but there _should_ be something fast enough that they would get a bit of a heads-up-

"Bumblebee, I can see your past selves on my Paris map," Mushu piped up, coming over to stand next to her. "Can you tell by the way they're moving when Hawkmoth would be leaving the hotel?"

"If Bumblebee and Bumblebun are showing up at _all_, he'll be leaving soon," Bumblebee said at once. "All of that went pretty quickly. I mean, from transformation to grabbing the box to leaving..."

All of them fell quiet, listening anxiously and pressing themselves back against the wall to try to make themselves as hidden as possible. Bumblebee's eyes scanned around the room, trying to figure out if there were any hidden traps or anything else they needed to watch out for. That seemed like a very villain-y thing to do, to have his lair full of traps and other things just in case the superheroes found him. Nothing stuck out, but it was possible that things were just hidden.

She was very, _very_ glad that her mom had picked the Snake. If anything went wrong, they could just reset and Cobra could give them a heads-up on the traps.

"It's been over five minutes," Mushu whispered. He shifted next to Bumblebee, his nerves clearly rising, and she reached out to take his hand. "He probably decided to hide, so that the Sting would wear off and they wouldn't be so obvious coming back. Otherwise they would be back by now- the Grand Paris is _literally_ next door."

Bumblebee nodded. "There's so many people outside the Grand Paris right now, and _all_ the lights there are on. The chance of someone seeing him come back, especially with what's essentially a human-sized board..."

It made sense. Maybe she had been surprised at first, but if Hawkmoth had gone directly home after leaving the hotel, she and Adrien would _definitely_ have heard something on their walk back to her house. After all, _Marinette_ didn't live that far from Adrien, either.

"So we'll have _two_ supervillains to contend with instead of just the one," Tanker filled in. He was still in his action stance, shield out in front of him. "Five against two, not bad!"

"_Tom_."

They fell into silence again, listening closely. Bumblebee checked the news on her trompo again, watching the live coverage of the Grand Paris fire. It was well under control now, with just a few flickering flames still being stomped out, and Chloe had been rescued from her balcony. She had clearly moved from fury to shock and fear.

Bumblebee tried her best not to smirk. Now Chloe knew that someone out there knew that she had still been using the Bee, and it was only a matter of time before the police found out, too, and Chloe's perfectly perfect world would fall apart.

For Adrien's sake, Bumblebee hoped that Chloe would get the help she needed to be a better person. Marinette had seen a glimmer of hope at one point there, but then Chloe had decided to regress straight back to her old ways. With some actual punishment...

A _thud_ on the roof made all of them startle, and then Hawkmoth was dropping in through the window. Even with the awkward angle and low lighting, Bumblebee could see the stress written across his face.

"The Box _and_ the Bee _and_ the Peacock, all gone," Hawkmoth was muttering as he landed, akuma-Nathalie right on his heels. "At least I thought to bring along a butterfly in case- _gah!_"

Bunnyx led the attack, followed by Mushu and Tanker. Bumblebee followed, getting her trompo into a yo-yo-like spin. Hawkmoth staggered backwards for a second, taken by surprise, but recovered soon enough, both him and Nathalie recovering fast enough and countering as best they could.

Well. _Trying_ to, at any rate. Hawkmoth _had_ been able to knock Bunnyx aside, which wasn't a surprise considering how much experience (and height) he had on her, but Nathalie had found herself well and truly bowled over by Tanker, thrown to the opposite side of the room. Mushu had stepped into Bunnyx's place, and was holding his own _much_ better, even pushing his father back a little bit.

Hawkmoth ducked a blow and reached for his pocket with his free hand, snarl on his face. "Thieves!"

"Oh, that's rich coming from you," Mushu quipped, dealing another strike. Bumblebee circled around him, looking for a good angle to strike. They were moving too much right now, and she didn't want to accidentally hit Adrien. "Isn't your entire _thing_ trying to steal the Miraculous from Ladybug and Chat No-"

"Missiles in the walls!" Cobra yelped suddenly. "Mushu, fry them!"

"_Lightning!_"

Bumblebee couldn't help but yelp as all of a sudden, fire filled her vision and the floor buckled as- from what she could gather- dozens and dozens of missiles exploded aimlessly. All seven of them tumbled down, dodging chunks of metal and concrete and wood. Bumblebee kicked into autopilot, kicking off of debris as she turned her downwards tumble into something more controlled. Her parents and Bunnyx weren't faring _nearly_ as well, which wasn't a surprise, akuma-Nathalie seemed too stunned to dodge, and Mushu was still in lightning form, which just left Hawkmoth.

Hawkmoth, who hadn't seen active combat _nearly_ as much as Ladybug had. Narrowing her eyes in focus, Bumblebee vaulted over one last twisted chunk of metal as she called for her Sting. Mushu rematerialized on Hawkmoth's other side at just the right time, distracting him, and Bumblebee slammed in for the hit, her aim true.

_Success_.

"Victory," Mushu announced grimly, snagging the Butterfly off of Hawkmoth's chest and then bouncing back out of range automatically- not that it was necessary, with Hawkmoth immobilized. Behind them, Bunnyx and Cobra were digging Nathalie- who was still akumatized, thankfully, and therefore protected- out from under the debris, with Tanker helping with the larger pieces. "You're _finished_, Hawkmoth."

"_Hell_ yeah, team!" Bunnyx cheered from where she stood. "Take _that_, Hawkbutt!"

"I'm calling the police," Tanker called, holding his shell-shield up to his ear. It looked a bit awkward, but he didn't seem to mind _too_ much. "They can take these two off of our hands. And- oh gosh- uh, there's a couple places that have caught on fire. Mushu, those are _electrical _fires, I think, so we should probably-"

"I know where to find fire extinguishers!" Mushu offered. He pocketed the Butterfly and caught Bumblebee's hand, pulling her along. "D'you think that Ladybug's Cure would fix all this, since Nathalie is technically akumatized right now?"

Bumblebee could only shrug. Honestly, she didn't know. _Technically_, the akuma had nothing to do with the giant, gaping hole in the Agreste mansion, but the Cure had taken liberties with fixing things before. It was worth a try.

For now, though, they had to put the fires out.

It didn't take long for emergency personnel to arrive, probably because so many had been practically next door at the Grand Paris and the lair's explosion hadn't exactly been subtle. Fire trucks pulled past the gate, rather harried-looking firefighters hopping out with police cars not far behind them. A police helicopter circled above, and beyond all of the emergency personnel, Bumblebee could see reporters pulling up, no doubt itching for their second fire-related story of the evening. They kept their distance for the time being, but no doubt would be pouring in the second that the police gave an all-clear.

"We have two people for you to take, sir," Tanker told the first policeman pleasantly, pushing Nathalie through the rubble in front of him. The stiff form of Mr. Agreste was slung over his shoulder. Behind them, Cobra helpfully contained the fluttering akuma in a jar that she had found, miraculously undamaged among the rubble. "Hawkmoth and Mayura. The Peacock Miraculous was recovered earlier this evening, and we got the Butterfly just now."

"Oh, uh..." The young policeman floundered for a second, clearly thrown by the new superheroes and the information. His hands reached for his belt, automatically pulling the handcuffs off. "R-right, of course. But, ah, I'll need to take statements-"

"Of course." Tanker smiled, clearly not about to give an inch. "Cobra and I can do that. The kids need to go- they've all used their powers, you know how it is. But I can tell you what I know."

Bumblebee nodded when her dad shot a look her way. It was obvious that he wanted Adrien out of the area, before the adrenaline from the fight gave way to realization of the full extent of his father's betrayal and he could actually react to that, or to the _also_ emotional realization that his home was in ruins at the moment, the entire center blasted to bits by the misfiring missiles.

Maybe it could be fixed with a Miraculous Ladybug later, but it had to be a bit of a shock to see the familiar entrance hall to his house in such shape. Bumblebee briefly considered leaving Adrien with Alix once they got back to the house and returning as Ladybug to help with the arrest and see what could be done with the house, but it only took a moment before she decided against it.

Adrien needed his friends right now. With the Butterfly back in safe hands- well, everything else could wait.

* * *

The news of Mr. Agreste's arrest and secret identity as Hawkmoth broke the next morning as the sun rose over Paris. It spread quickly, one news outlet after the updating the breaking story and changing the explosion at the mansion from a general interest piece to a headline. The motives were still unclear (or at least un_confirmed;_ anyone with a brain could look at Mr. Agreste and then at the case of his missing wife and see that that was a pretty obvious motive) and his secretary had _also_ been taken into custody, confirmed as Mayura.

And, strangest of all, it hadn't been Ladybug and Chat Noir who had brought about his defeat. It was a team of completely new, never-seen-before superheroes, which was causing considerable amounts of confusion, speculation, and even outright alarm.

The Miraculous, of course, had (almost) all been seen before- the Bee and the Snake and the Turtle and the Dragon, and there were a couple people who _swore_ that they had once seen a version of the Rabbit, too, just _taller_\- but the people wielding them were all different.

Were they connected to Ladybug and Chat Noir, or independent operators? Where were the city's superheroes? Were the new superheroes connected to the fire at the Grand Paris? What if these new superheroes _weren't_ actually superheroes and had just stolen the Miraculous for their own means?

Alix snorted at that last bit. As if Marinette would _ever _used the Miraculous for unsavory reasons. She was _far_ too straight-laced for that. And _Adrien-_ well, he had insisted on coming along to help defeat his father, determined to help right some of his father's wrongs. It would be hard to get much more _noble_ than that, which meant that the speculation in some of the less-reputable tabloids about how much Adrien might know was even _more_ infuriating.

Alix was going to start throwing hands at anyone who suggested that Adrien might have known about his father being Hawkmoth. It was just- it was _disgusting_. She had to wonder if Adrien would end up revealing exactly _how_ involved he had been with the final battle (the final ambush?), or if he would decide that going in a different direction to thoroughly prove his innocence would be a better idea. It probably depended on what the press was saying about him, and if the journals that the police had found in their overnight search of the mansion about Mr. Agreste's on-the-side activities said anything about who did and didn't know about his identity.

(Alix was also really, _really_ hoping that the journals had some record of who was going to get Miraculous from Hawkmoth. If Adrien and Marinette were right about Lila...well, things like that couldn't just go unpunished.)

(Speaking of which... well, presumably Marinette (or Bumblebee, in case she didn't want to deal with Mr. Bourgeois trying to press charges for arson, because he totally _would_) would be turning over the footage from Chloe's meeting with Hawkmoth today, and then _that_ could get punished, and Hawkmoth's comments would open the path for the police to search for that second name, if they hadn't already found it.)

The breaking, ever-updating news was the reason- aside from the fact that she wasn't emotionally exhausted like Adrien, or naturally a late sleeper like Marinette- Alix was already up, sitting with her back propped against Marinette's giant stuffed cat and scrolling through her phone, resolutely ignoring the way that the class chat was blowing up. It had been going strong ever since the fire at the Grand Paris, and now- hours and hours later- the messages had piled up like mad.

She _had_ glanced at them briefly, but exited out pretty quickly after she saw Lila trying to claim partial credit for Mr. Agreste's discovery and the formation of the new team of superheroes. At least Alix would be able to catch Adrien and Marinette up to what was being said once they woke up.

With that thought, Alix glanced over to the side. Next to her, Adrien and Marinette were still fast asleep, curled up next to each other in a tangle of blankets. Marinette's bed had been a bit cramped with all three of them sleeping in it- it was clearly meant for _one_ person, not _three_\- but Adrien had clearly needed to be near people and it could have been a little weird if Marinette and Adrien were in a bed together by themselves. Besides, Alix hadn't exactly wanted to leave after the excitement of the previous night, either, and she wanted to be there to help in case Adrien got nightmares or something, which- well, if she was in his position and helped get her dad arrested and blew up half the family home and found out that her dad was Hawkmoth, she would _definitely_ be getting nightmares.

At least Marinette had been the recipient of most of Adrien's thrashing around when he was getting settled. She was _way_ more patient than Alix would have been if _she_ had been the one getting kicked that much, and it was honestly a bit of a wonder that she had been able to drop off at _all_.

Maybe Marinette had just been too tired to care. After all, while Alix _had_ been involved with the whole Hawkmoth takedown, that had been pretty short compared to Marinette's earlier stakeout in Chloe's room, plus the double dose of excitement with stealing the Miraculous twice over with an assist from the Rabbit. That must have taken a _huge_ amount of focus and on-the-spot planning and confidence that _she_ could do it- _and_ not an ounce of hesitation in her step, or she _would_ have failed.

Alix had expected that Adrien would probably be pretty kickass with a Miraculous even if it was his first time out, thanks to his training, but _Marinette_ had been _crazy_ amazing, taking to it like a natural.

Alix knew that she was going to be a permanent future Miraculous holder with Ladybug and Chat Noir, but she was going to have to petition them to see if Adrien and Marinette could be holders, too. If they had been _that_ good for their first time out, she could only imagine what they might be like with a bit of training.

At that thought, Alix's eyes narrowed, watching as Adrien burrowed deeper into Marinette's embrace, his hair long since mussed out of his normal tamed style and into the messiest of bedheads. Or _had_ it been their first times out? There were too many things that didn't quite sit right with her about their explanations, things that were rushed past and never fully explained or waved off with the world's thinnest excuse.

How both Adrien and Marinette separately found out about Chloe's meeting with Hawkmoth. How they already seemed to know about what Miraculous had what powers, even ones that hadn't ever been used. How they knew about kwami names and- in Marinette's case, with Bumblebun- kwami fusion.

Some things, of course- mostly Marinette's knowledge- _could_ potentially be explained by Pollen telling her things quickly in order to get the Grand Paris Ambush pulled off successfully. But _that much_ information, in as much detail as Marinette clearly knew, wasn't exactly a fast field briefing. Add in the fact that both Adrien and Marinette seemed to automatically know that Alix would go for the Rabbit, when only Ladybug and Chat Noir had been close enough to see and hear everything with Future Bunnyx- and had she ever actually _told_ them what name she wanted to use, or had they just _assumed?_

Almost subconsciously, Alix's eyes slid down to Adrien's hand, where a silver ring sat on one finger, then up to Marinette's ears, where plain, dark earrings sat. Maybe it was just a coincidence, of course, but Alix _knew_ that Marinette had always rotated her earrings before Ladybug's appearance, either wearing none at all or trying out experimental ones that she had made herself, and that ring looked like it was pretty much the same size and shape as Chat Noir's Miraculous. Add in the fact that neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir had showed up to the final battle, even though their team _definitely_ hadn't been subtle about it with the whole _blow-up-half-a-mansion_ thing, and the fact that both Adrien and Marinette were crazy (or _driven_) enough to separately come up with the idea to steal the Bee from Chloe, _and_ their curiously timed absences...

Well. It _might_ be a coincidence, but something told Alix that she was probably on the right track.

Smiling to herself, Alix went back to scrolling through her phone. She wasn't going to confront the other two, not right now. Adrien was already reeling from the dual reveal from his father and Nathalie, _plus_ the arrest (and Alix wouldn't be surprised if there was probably more news about his family to come), and Marinette's full energy was focused on helping with that. Alix also wasn't going to breathe a _word_ of this to anyone.

(Unlike Alya, she actually understood the importance of keeping secret identities, and not just her _own_ secret identity.)

Hawkmoth's arrest and his identity reveal was going to be the news of the month, if not the _year_. Alix was sure that new breaks in the case and speculation about the other superheroes would dominate the headlines for a while, keeping it fresh in the city's mind. Their entire class (minus, of course, the wannabe supervillains) would have to rally around Adrien, she suspected, and make sure that no one bothered him. Alix could arrange that, maybe, and let Marinette focus on helping Adrien heal.

Alix glanced down at her sleeping friends one more time, smiling as she did. They looked so innocent and peaceful right now, not at all like the fierce heroes yesterday who had played such a giant role in taking down two supervillains. They would have to go out again later, no doubt- the police still wanted to talk to _all_ of the superheroes involved in the takedown, and of course Marinette had evidence to turn over (_and_, if Alix was right about her assumptions, they would have to make appearances as Ladybug and Chat Noir later on)- but for now, she would let them sleep.

After everything, they deserved it.

* * *

_a/n: This is the final chapter of Stealing from Supervillains! I hope you enjoyed the story- it was definitely fun to write!_

_As always, comments make my day!_


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